A 50-year-old man was killed in a shell explosion after he entered the Teesta Field Firing Range near Siliguri in northern West Bengal, the Army said in a statement. The incident happened around 2 pm on Monday when Tilak Bahadur Rai, a resident of Totgaon in Mal police station area, entered the range when live firing was underway, it said.

"It has been confirmed that the individual entered the restricted zone of Teesta Field Firing Range with the likely intention of scrap collection and an artillery shell exploded near him and he lost his life," it added. It is a notified firing range on the banks of the Teesta river, the statement said on Tuesday.